A Green ChristmasI spent Christmas with my girlfriend Michelle and her family on Vancouver Island, in the charming oceanfront community, Cedar. The town has an unusual history, with a somewhat unsavoury past. In the early 1900s a New Age cult, started here under the leadership of an Edward Arthur Wilson. The financial and sexual scandals that arose from his Aquarian Foundation settlement have led to comparisons with Rasputin, scientologist L. Ron Hubbard and Jamestown fanatic Jim Jones. You'd never know this today. The town consists of a corner store, liquor store, pub and gas station and is mostly farms and cottages, though this is unfortunately changing with new developments popping up as the nearby city of Nanaimo expands.

Michelle's mom, Joan, owns a 28 acre farm, which at one time housed bantam hens, cows, and horses. Their only animals now are two wild rabbits and a cute, small white dog.

Sadly, Joan was diagnosed with terminal cancer last summer and she was in a great deal of pain over the holidays :( Despite her condition she was in good spirits and joined us in all of the Christmas festivities.

She had wanted her last Christmas to be white, but unfortunately it was unseasonably warm and got as high as 18 degrees celcius!

The Christmas Lobster

On Christmas Eve, Michelle and I did some last minute grocery shopping, which included picking up a dozen live lobster for our dinner the next day. We were both a bit freaked out for what lay in store for these crustaceans and wouldn't even open the box to make sure they were the right size/correct number.

That evening we all went to a lovely Christmas service being held by a local church in Nanaimo at the Port Theatre. We then picked up takeout Chinese Food (yes Chinese) and returned home for a late supper. The non-traditional meal was a thoughtful touch by Michelle and her family -- my family always has Chinese food on Christmas Eve (I'm not sure exactly why I think it has something to do with Newfoundland and my mom's birthday, which taken together doesn't really make much sense).

Christmas day began with a beautiful run through the countryside, in anticipation of all the calories I was going to need to burn off for what would be eaten that day. When I returned we whipped up a yummy brunch of strawberry, blueberry, and raspberry crepes complimented by Mumm's Champagne with a splash of OJ.

The day seemed to fly by and before we knew it we were getting ready with meal preparations for the large dinner party that night. Neither Michelle nor I, however, were willing to deal with cooking the lobster, which fell to her older sister Bev to handle. Though unconventional with no turkey or goose on the menu, the meal was fabulous and included steak tenderloin, steamed lobster with garlic butter, sauteed asparagus, and mashed potatoes. The Christmas pudding dessert with hard butter topping was the perfect ending.

Following the meal we decided to drive down to Ladysmith to check out their festival of lights. With over 100,000 Christmas lights, the picturesque waterfront community glows from miles away. It reminded me in some ways of Summerland and their Christmas lights, which I blogged about previously. There's something to be said for small town community spirit! We finally returned home around 10:30 pm and started opening presents. ( I must admit that there's no way we could have waited that long with my extended family in the Maritimes and little cousins Heidi and Timothy. The anticipation would be too much to bear for them and for us!) It was a pleasure watching everyone take turns opening their presents and we were all exhausted by the time it was finished at 2 am.

Spending Christmas with Michelle and her family during the challenging time they are facing was a sad, but also moving experience. The care and love they have for their mother was heart warming to see in this day and age where many sick and elderly people are placed in nursing homes and infrequently visited. I am deeply touched that they included me in their family gathering.

Finally, a posting about Christmas on Vancouver Island wouldn't be complete without a discussion on how to get there. Having previously lived on the island for grad school, and being stuck in innumerable ferry lineups, I confess an abhorrence of the BC ferry system. I was therefore delighted to learn of the privately-run, Harbour Lynx fast ferry, which conveniently leaves from a terminal in downtown Vancouver that is a short walk from my home. It was infinitely better than the lousy BC ferry service, and I highly recommend it if you need to go to mid-island and aren't driving.